A Great Week at Great Wood Camp - By Nick Fry

Earlier this summer I spent a week at Scripture Union's residential camp in the Quantock Hills called the Great Wood Experience (GWX). Thanks to a generous grant from our church's mission committee, I was able to join the team once again – and this year my 10-year-old son Toby experienced Great Wood Camp for the first time as a camper.

Perfect Week

The weather was ideal – sunny and warm throughout. We had about 54 people on camp: 24 team members and 30 boys aged 10-12. This year I was leading the kitchen team, and we had a brilliant 17-year-old volunteer whose enthusiasm and independence meant the cooks who wanted to could get out into the hills and join in with activities too.

Feeding more than fifty people has its challenges – try poaching 54 eggs before 8am or cooking 54 jacket potatoes in ovens where different shelves cook at completely different speeds! We did several "mountain buffets" too, taking food out into the hills to meet the rest of the camp.

The boys loved the mix of activities: walks through the hills, wide games, learning to use axes, "crazy sports" (water-based mayhem), and dam-building competitions in the stream. Highlights included cooking breakfast over their own campfires and the final evening's huge campfire with songs, sketches, and burgers. One night the boys build and sleep in bivouacs out in the forest and I slept out under the stars in a hammock - a night I look forward to each year.

This year we had a good number of new, and young, team which was brilliant as they brought a lot of energy and fun - they decided that stringing up six hammocks on the same tree, one above the other, was the best way to get a good nights sleep!

Seeds and Stories

Each day included cabin Bible times and evening meetings with worship and gospel talks. The most powerful moments were testimonies from team members, especially junior leaders who'd been campers themselves just a few years ago, sharing how camp had impacted their faith.

I had some good conversations with boys as we walked back from evening activities – their honest questions about God reminded me why this matters. While I can't know the immediate impact on any of them (including Toby), those testimonies from former campers give me hope that seeds are being sown, even if they take years to grow.

A Thin Place

Great Wood Camp sits in a clearing surrounded by towering trees, with log cabins around a grassy field where emperor dragonflies patrol. The stream runs behind the cabins, and there's something about this place – used for Christian camps for many years – that feels like what the Celts called a "thin place," where God seems particularly near.

Watching Toby navigate his first camp experience (his highlight: roasting gummy sweets over the fire until perfectly gooey) reminded me why I keep returning. I've been involved with this camp since I was 16, missing just a couple along the way.

It's worth noting what volunteering involves: taking annual leave, paying to go, travelling down to Somerset, minimal sleep, and working hard all week. But seeing the impact – immediate and long-term – makes it absolutely worthwhile.

Thanks again to our mission committee for making this week possible. Great Wood Camp continues to be a place where young people encounter God in His creation, and I'm grateful to be part of it.